The article below says the Big Bad Bruins of the early 1970s were hated for being big and bad, the Broad Street Bullies of the mid-70s were hated for being bullies, and a decade ago the Leaves were hated for playing dirty AND diving/embellishing AND whining (notably Tucker, Domi, Corson, Belfour, McCabe, Roberts). The Leaves of course have also been hated long & hard, far & wide for being coddled by the CBC. I dug up this article from 9 years ago because it rang a bell when I heard “The most Hated Team in Hockey”. It starts with the aforementioned dirtiness/diving/whining and ends with THE CODDLING:

The Maple Leafs are clearly favored by CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, which is even more profoundly consecrated as Saturday evening viewing in Canada than Friends and Seinfeld were on Thursday evenings for couch potatoes in the U.S. This season Hockey Night, probably the second most important institution in the sport besides the Stanley Cup, will air 27 games involving Toronto, 12 more than the Edmonton Oilers, the next most televised team. Maple Leafs telecasts have the No. 1 announcing team of Bob Cole and Harry Neale and the fervent good wishes of Don Cherry, who regularly trumpets his support for Toronto on his wildly popular Coach's Corner segment after the first period. Since 1989-90, the 10 top-rated Saturday night games and eight of the top 10 playoff matches have featured the Leafs even though they never reached a Cup final over that span.

"I remember watching the first three or four games of the Leafs-Kings semifinals on TV in New York in 1993," says James Patrick, a Sabres defenseman who played with the Rangers from '83-84 through '93-94. "It was a pretty good series. Dougie Gilmour was in his prime, going up against Wayne Gretzky. I had no preference. Then I went home to Winnipeg and caught the end of the series and was blown away by the biased coverage. Hockey Night wanted Toronto to win so badly, I instantly became the world's biggest Kings fan."

The crush of attention, and occasional fawning, have created a predictable backlash.

In the corners and in the crease of NHL rinks outside Toronto, the most hated team in hockey is Sundin and a bunch of mother Tuckers.

Note the Leaves were hated by everyone BUT the CBC (and other eastern media).

CBC’s Leaf-loving ways have been long documented. As have the complaints to CBC from westerners. These complaints are directly responsible for, as of 2008, CBC being limited in the number of times it can show each Canadian team during the regular-season.... as well as CBC broadcasters being instructed to show less favoritism.

Westerners have to a lesser extent fired the same kind of complaints to TSN & Sportsnet.

I’m thinking alotta these eastern broadcasters are offended by we westerners and our meddling over the years. I’m thinking they are branding us the "Most Hated Team in Hockey" out of... SPITE! Because friends, we certainly don’t deserve it... hey compare our sins to those of the three teams listed above!

Yep they hate us and they are out to get us....

Now Don Cherry has at times in the past displayed extremely anti-Canadien and anti-Senator tenancies. But he has ALWAYS been anti-Canuck. Oh these days he tries to hide it somewhat at least by throwing out the odd compliment to guys like “BE-ESKA” and “LALA-ONGO”, but hopefully most folks realize he’s just doing a little appeasing so he doesn’t get booed on his rare west-coast swings . It came to a head years ago when Canuck GM Pat Quinn was threatening to punch his lights out for his blatant anti-Canuck rhetoric (mostly centered on untruths regarding Pavel Bure at the time). Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems every playoff series the Canucks have ever played: There was Cherry, routing for the opposition!

Ron MacLean’s hatchet-job on Burrows a while back was refreshing in that his inner hatred for all things Canuck finally bubbled to the surface. MacLean hides his bias better than most imo because he usually doesn’t have the stones to be honest. Now you the reader may choose to lable that “professionalism” to which I just lofl. We’re talking about a guy who was willing to overlook the antics of Tucker, Domi, Corson, Belfour, McCabe, Roberts etc FOR YEARS!

Why do broadcasters Cherry & MacLean and previously Hairy Kneel & Cole have no qualms about pretending to be Leaf fans but would never ever allow themselves to appear the least bit pro-any-other-Canadian-team?? Location, location, location? Oh and guys like Scott Oake:

I’ll never forget him going after Alfredsson in a post-game interview after the Sens defeated the Leaves in a playoff game. Alffy is all happy, being congratulated by others for scoring the last-second game-winner... Oake marches up, sticks a mike in his face and ANGRILY asks: “DON’T YOU THINK YOU SHOULD’VE BEEN PENALIZED FOR INTERFERENCE JUST BEFORE YOU SCORED THAT GOAL??!!... omg the ‘what kind of nutjob??’ look on Alffy’s face was priceless! Then of course the 4 broadcasters above proceeded to harp on the penalty that should’ve been whilst playing slo-mo after slo-mo til the end of the broadcast. Trust me guys, there was no penalty on that play. Not even close.

The there’s Tim Warnsby: “As disliked as the Canucks have become in this playoff run for their embellishment antics to the Alexandre Burrows biting incident to Aaron Rome's late hit, the Boston Bruins goalie continues to be a likable character.”

Oh yes, CBC hates us!!

Hey, they took Hughson away from us didn’t they??

I mean C’MON they stuck us with Lee, Weekes, and Oake FFS!

Consider it a conspiracy theory if you will....

And did y’all catch the TSN quiz on Wednesday?

The question: “Are the Canucks the most hated team in hockey?”

Bob McKenzie: "There's no question about it. Well deserved reputation although the funny thing is Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows used to be a lot more like Heckle and Jeckle and they've really calmed their act down a little bit and even Kevin Bieksa has toned things down. But you know what they say about the reputation, and I guess if you bite someone's fingers (allegedly), you're going to have that reputation."

Aaron Ward: "I agree. You've got two crafty instigators in Kesler and Burrows and you add in Maxim Lapierre – one of the most hated guys in the league – and then you have a guy that rubs guys the wrong way in Bieksa with his cool-breeze attitude, so yes."

Easterner Ward catches on quick. But ole McKenzie has always been a closet Canuck-hater imo. That (allegedly) was thrown in from the sidelines by Duthie. Really Bob? “Heckle and Jeckle”?? “EVEN Kevin Bieksa”?? “Well deserved reputation of “The Most Hated Team in Hockey”??? And fuck BOB, you haven’t heard the dozens of NHLers (including Yzerman) who came forward to say every hockey player bites a glove at some point?? You missed that?

REALLY??

I always sensed the Canuck-hate in McKenzie, he’s pretty good at hiding it though. But I remember when the Bertuzzi incident first occurred. Fans, media, and Gms from all corners of the NHL were wondering if Bert would get a coupla games/weeks suspension (I’m talking real early on after the hit). Everyone was kinda shocked when McKenzie immediately pushed for “the regular season and all of the playoffs and then who knows what.” I mean we found out later how serious the injury was (which of course TOTALLY affected the length of suspension) but ouch Bob!

Anyway, for wotever reason its here to stay so Strangelove says LEARN TO LOVE THE HATE!

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Last edited by Strangelove on Fri Oct 21, 2011 6:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nobody hates teams that are irrelevent. Does anybody hate the Kansas City Royals or the Florida Panthers? No, because they suck and nobody cares.

We have a very good team with a bunch of players who are tough to play against, annoying and very effective. Burrows wouldn't be a hated player if he sucked. People hate him because he's agitating AND an effective player.

Nobody hates teams that are irrelevent. Does anybody hate the Kansas City Royals or the Florida Panthers? No, because they suck and nobody cares.

We have a very good team with a bunch of players who are tough to play against, annoying and very effective. Burrows wouldn't be a hated player if he sucked. People hate him because he's agitating AND an effective player.

I agree with herb 100 % but it isn't just that. We live here my goodness where else in the world even comes close to what we have here. Beautiful women everywhere you look, world class restaurants, scenic beauty, fantastic weather. Jealousy is the right of anyone who can't live here.

I can understand why people don't like Kesler and Burrows - I would hate them if they were on an opposing team. But I can never understand the dislike of Bieksa, he plays the game hard and just seems in interviews to be a guy that is a fun guy to have around that knows how lucky he is. It just seems odd to me that he would be thrown in with the other two in this case.

The Coilers & Dead Things weren't all that hated in their dynasty years.

The interesting part to me is how the eastern media (particularly CBC) tried their damnedest to promote their precious Leaves as Canada's darlings only to eventually have it completely backfire on them. They became "The Most Hated Team in Hockey"... with many pointing directly at CBC as the reason.

These days it seems this same media is trying to promote the Canucks as "The Most Hated Team in Hockey".

They seem to be successful this time around.

A conspiracist might suggest some of their motivation is payback for all that hatred which spewed forth from the West Coast towards the Leaves (and all things Toronto) for all those years.

Regardless, i LOVE the hatred and I'm glad most of you do as well!

For those who can't handle it though, y'might wanna get off the bandwagon cuz its only gonna get worse imo.